Tissue Paper & Acrylics

Wide paint brush (mine was an inexpensive bristle brush from Home Depot)

Chunky stamp (mine was a butterfly from Back Street)

White gift tissue, 2 sheets

Paper plate

Plastic sheeting

How to do it:

Lay plastic sheeting on your work surface (mine was my workroom floor). Be sure you put down a piece that’s larger than your tissue. Paint a square onto the plastic that’s slightly larger than your tissue. If you have some extra tissue, you can lay a sheet of it under your plastic to show you the correct size.

Immediately cover your painted square with a piece of tissue. Let it float down onto the paint, and then gently pat it with your hand. The paint might come through a bit and get onto your hands. If you don’t like that idea, you might want to wear gloves—I just wash my hands after this step.

Dry bush a layer of paint over your damp tissue. Use a light touch, brushing or patting, until the paper is covered. Don’t worry about getting every bit of white covered—that happens later.

Add another layer of tissue onto your wet paint, patting it down like you did the last time. Brush another coat of paint on, using gentle strokes and pats, covering the white of the tissue completely. I just squirt blobs of paint here and there onto the tissue, and then spread it out—it doesn’t take much paint to cover the tissue.

Let the paint dry completely before moving on. Seriously—walk away for a few hours and do something else. When the paint is dry, gently peel it from the plastic. It’s a little fragile, but much stronger than it was before painting. It shouldn’t take too much persuasion to get it loose.

Now for the fun part—decorating! Squirt a little gold paint onto a paper plate, pat your chunky stamp around in it to spread it out, and then start stamping onto your painted tissue. I used just one stamp for this piece, rotating it randomly.